Should Drink Driving Carry a Harsher Punishment?
 

One thing I DETEST is drink/drugged driving. Why do people just get away with bans? Do they abide by the ban? No. They've broken the law anyway and will continue to drive while banned regardless. As for the fine, p'ah! Nothing

These people are in control of a weapon. A huge big tonne of loaded weapon. Bang the bastards up and teach them a lesson :mad:

What a fantastic well thought out idea. Lets bang them up because you dont like them eh?

Here is something I bet you never thought about; at the moment the driver who knows he/she is drunk generally just pulls in when (s)he sees the blue lights behind him/her. But with what you are proposing means taking away the gamble and making it a certainty he/she goes to jail.

Well in his/her inebriatted he/she may as well put his/her boot down and give them the slip.

Dont you think its bad enough me trying to get home half cut without having to avoid all those eejits trying to outrun plod.

Or perhaps the thought of instant jail would stop the idiots doing it in the first place..... When they are on the road drunk they are death waiting to happen if they are driving at 3mph or 100

I agree. Would be fine if they killed themselves, their own fault but it's when they hurt other people that it becomes a problem.

I watched a pissed up 'driver' literally speed off completely off his face a year or so ago. He bounced off every single kerb. I was thankful it was so late at night or God only knows.....

Thats just the point though isnt it, knowing they could have an accident and potentially kill themselves or someone else, doesnt stop them now does it?

The 'it wont happen to me' or 'I can drive when I am drunk' syndrome will still exist and DUI will still continue to happen whether or not jail sentences become mandatory. Incidentally they are mandatory for recurrent offenders, yet they still reoffend.

The problem is that when a driver decides he cant go to jail or is so scared of going to jail he puts his foot down to avoid arrest, more accidents will happen.

Can't agree with you. If people who are intending to drink or take drugs premeditatedly take their cars in the expectation of driving once they are drunk or stoned, then they fully deserve to feel the full force of the law. Why should it take the death or injury of another person before there are any consequences? However, putting such idiots in already overcrowded prisons is not the answer (unless they have killed or injured someone). In the first instance they should be named and shamed, have their driving licences confiscated for a painful length of time plus face hefty fines which, if unpaid, will then result in imprisonment.

If people want to get drunk or high, they should leave the car at home and get a cab. What they shouldn't do is selfishly and recklessly put others at risk because it is more convenient for them. AND if they do happen to kill or injure someone they should not be getting laughably lenient sentences but should face years and years in jail to keep the roads safe from their stupidity.

I did a very, very few times (about 2 or 3) drunk driving only because I couldn't do otherwise.

Anyway, I'm more of a overlimit driving kind of guy. Been arrested by the police a few times, I lost like 5 points on my licence. I can't help it to be honest. Speed makes me horny. Yeah, let's put it that way.

That is exactly the kind of male attitude that causes all the problems in the first place! People have to die and families devastated so that unintelligent idiots can get a buzz! Just as long as you kill one of your own family members and not someone else's! :nono:

"so that unintelligent idiots "
thats no way to talk about the frog.

Perhaps the answer is to make it an offence to drive at all if you have been drinking. Some people are affected by low amounts of alcohol,others after a lot.
Clearly there can be scales for penalties for driving after drinking, but it may just help to, if not stop people drinking and driving at least make sure they drink very little before driving if they know the law is not to drive after drinking alcohol at all.
One fool, driving with drink she/he thinks doesn't affect them much who then hits someone and kills or seriously injures them,doesn't just harm that person, they cause trauma and pain for Parents, Granparents, Brothers Sisters, a whole knock on effect to Families and Friends.
The other side of the coin is,there are amny fools on the road anyway, once they come across who they think is a drunk driver then they will goad them.
Driving a car,you need to be in the right and under no influence of any substance,you at least then have a chance to enjoy safer,worry free journeys.

Even the French have their fare share of idiots - boasting about drink/speed/driving is hardly intelligent! No doubt it would be completely different if some drunk or speeding driver mowed down one of their loved ones!

I do not do over speed driving when there are people in the city. I don't even do it in the city, generally on the freeway when there is nobody. I haven't done it for a while, I calmed down on it. Looks like an complete french frog ****** like me can improve after all :laugh:

As for drunk driving, I did it about 3 times for family reasons I couldn't help. If I had the choice, I wouldn't have but I didn't. So no, I don't do it for fun.
If I go to a party and I know I'll drive, I don't drink because I'll drop people off at their home and same thing for my friends. I'd rather kill myself alone than killing other people. People who do otherwise, I don't respect them (same thing for people smoking around children)

I thought we got along ? May I know why I deserve the hate from you ? (I can see why other people on here don't like but I'm surprised at you)

I'm far from the model driver, I'm pushing my luck with my points, any more and I'll be banned. But my bad habits are going through red lights (when slamming on the accelerator because the lights are changing) and speeding (but never more than 10mph over the limit), that doesn't really endanger anyones life if you're on the ball. But I hate drink driving, one of my best friends was killed because of a drunk driver and I was involved in an accident and my car got written off because of one :bawling:

I think there should be a zero tolerance policy on it, none of this stupid limit thing. Alcohol affects everyone differently and noone actually knows the correct limit

I agree on this. It's just nasty and kills way more people than overspeed driving (yet it's not good either). I've got no respect for people who do that. It's not like we don't know what the risks are, there are commercials and advertisements EVERYWHERE.

We do get on.

Fine then. :hugesmile:

Actually speeding is the biggest killer on the roads and every bit as great a menace as drunk driving! Neither are acceptable!

http://www.northumbria.police.uk/adv...peeding_Facts/

Was talking about this with some friends the other day.. and was thinking..

What would you rather be hit by?

A drunk driver driving 30mph
or some wreckless driver driving at 80mph?

Would you class going at 35mph as speeding? Thats generally what most people do in 30 zones and don't cause accidents

That link probably refers to people doing double the speed limit

It is attitudes like yours that do actually endanger lives. What happens when you think you are on the ball but maybe you arent. Going through red lights while accelerator harshly, yeah safe as houses that noone has ever been involved in an accident let alone been killed because of someone doing that have they?

Any sort of deliberate action breaking the law when driving is as willful as any other.

As for zero tolerance there is no such thing, where do you set the limit, some peoples metabolism naturally create a certain level of alcohol in the body if they eat fruit for example.

I bet you still feed the wheel.

I always work on a 2 second rule, if its going on to amber, if I think I can make it before its red then I'll put my foot down, if not then I'll brake. If I ever go through a red light its when its literally just turned red, its not like I randomly sit at traffic lights and then drive into oncoming traffic whilst its red, just keep going without looking or floor the accelerator so I'm going 50mph through the lights. In theory, doing that won't cause an accident because I still keep a good distance from the car in front and the traffic lights for oncoming traffic will still be on red too.

And there is such thing as zero tolerance, metabolism isn't going to put the same amount of alcohol into your bloodstream as drinking a pint so limits need to be kept at a minimal level. The current system allows you to drink a fair bit

I hope you keep saying that and believing it when you hit someone.

The current system actually doesnt allow you to drink a lot, that is what most people fail to appreciate, a pint will see an average man under the limit so long as he has eaten a meal within the previous couple of hours however two pints of normal beers and lager(at about 4%) will see him just on or over depending on size general fitness and a lot of other considerations.

And no I dont drink and drive at all. Like today i took my daughter in for shopping and to get her hair cut, it would have been easier to to use the car but because I knew I probably would have a pint or three we got the bus. Its that simple. If I have had a few of an evening and I need to get anywhere in the morning then its taxis and public transport. Its not too hard given the local area.

But I do appreciate the problems of others, dropping kids off on the way to work, no breakfast etc

Obviously themetabolism doesnt put the same amount of alcohol into the system, I never said it did, but at what level would you propose any future blood alcohol level?

As low as biologically possible.

You've answered your own point imo where you say alcohol affects everyone differently. We're told raw figures, ie units, not all of the other information that goes with it that you need to eat etc. Some people get drunk faster than others, so 3 units will make one person quite tipsy whilst it will keep another stone cold sober. How can you let a tipsy person get behind a wheel? You can't put a solid figure on how much alcohol it takes for a person to be unable to drive and thats a risk the current system has.